Where Obama sees economic growth, increased consumer spending, and millions of new jobs that give him cause "to feel good about the direction we're headed," Americans disagree. Recent polls show that 71 percent think the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction. Median household income has gone down. Millions of people who want full-time work have been forced to take part-time jobs. Yet Obama implies that any lingering economic troubles result from the rich doing too well at the expense of those left behind, writes Rove.

Where Obama says "the world has always been messy," a recent survey found that 65 percent of Americans say the world is "more dangerous" than "several years ago." The president blames "the nightly news" for making it feel "like the world is falling apart" and social media for bringing the suffering of others closer to us, Rove writes.

In fact, writes Rove, cabinet members in Obama's own administration and top U.S. military leaders have characterized the threat of Islamist terrorism as unprecedented. Some 54 percent of Americans told pollsters that the president's foreign policy approach was too weak compared to 38 percent when he came into office.

Obama blames Americans' anxiety on a Washington that doesn't work. Yet even leaders of his own party on Capitol Hill have complained that Obama has failed to provide direction.

A big reason why Washington doesn't work has to do with the president's own conduct and the disconnect between "how he perceives the economy and world" and how Americans do. It's a chasm that could harm Democrats politically in November. It is already costing America economically and in terms of its national security, Rove concludes.